Awards from the Indonesian government were delivered by Director
General of Culture Hilmar Farid to three pioneers of gamelan music in
the UK and simultaneously launched the Home Coming Gamelan Festival in
Solo in 2018.

Gamelan is the Javanese and Balinese traditional ensemble music played predominantly using percussion instruments.

Hunt was delighted and had never expected that her efforts to popularize gamelan music in the UK would be highly lauded.

"It is an honor and pride for me that what I have done is being
recognized," Hunt, who in the early 1970s had organized Javanese music
and dance tours in the UK and Europe, noted.

Meanwhile, Sorrell, an ethnomusicologist who studied gamelan at the
Wesleyan University, said gamelan in Britain is similar to flower seeds
that had been planted and now continue to grow and bloom.

Sorrell, who teaches music at the York University, has urged the
university to buy gamelan. He was involved in several activities,
including the Durham Oriental Music Festival & English Gamelan
Orchestra, when the gamelan arrived in the UK.

In addition to music, Sorrell wrote several books and articles and
make compositions on gamelan. With a large number of gamelan instruments
and lecturers, he expressed hope that more Indonesian musicians will be
able to perform more often in the UK.

Meanwhile, Roth opened the South Bank Gamelan in about 1987. He
helped the public to learn gamelan and opened night classes as well as
organized workshops and gamelan training at schools on weekends, which
were valuable breakthroughs in introducing gamelan in the UK.

The South Bank Gamelan is now one of the gamelan groups in Europe that has been acknowledged worldwide.

Roth, Sorrell, and Hunt will be invited to attend the International Gamelan Festival in Solo, Central Java, in 2018.

Gamelan has been known worldwide since its introduction at the Paris
World Fair in1889. Today, the popularity of gamelan has grown, and it
is played at several educational institutions, art communities, museums,
and galleries across the world.

Gamelan has become a tool of expression for various artists from
across the world, including England, the Netherlands, Germany, America,
and Japan. At least 200 gamelan communities were born in the US and 158
others in England.

According to Head of the Foreign Cultural Diplomacy at the
Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture Ahmad Mahendra, gamelan in
Britain was documented by Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) in the History of
Java (1817).

Raffles was the first Briton who brought two sets of gamelans to
England, one of which was kept at the Claydon House in London.
Meanwhile, the British Museum also has a gamelan on display since
1859.(Antara)